The Salisbury City Council asked Thursday for the public's response to Mayor Jim Ireton's redistricting plan, and three people showed up.

The participants may have been few, but their preferences were as varied as they could be.

In April, Ireton proposed expanding the number of council districts from two to five. The city faces pressure from the Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union to increase the electoral prospects of minority candidates.

Ireton's plan would boost the number of minority-majority districts from one to two.

Mary Ashanti of the Wicomico NAACP said the organization supports the map. She clarified, though, that the voting-age population of African-Americans would be a plurality, not a majority in the two districts.

The new District 1 would encompass must of the westside and the north end of the Riverside neighborhood. Meanwhile, the new District 2 would be centered largely on the East Church Street area.

Another resident, Robert Taylor, called the map a "Balkanization" of Salisbury.

"We're much better off if we can have all at-large elections," he said. "I think the idea of affirmative action and special treatment is running its course."

It's hard enough as it is to recruit candidates who are interested in government and can devote the time to serving, said Carolyn Hall, a former council member.

"I think it is a disservice to chop the city into five districts," Hall said. "You make a situation where people are being elected from a very small pool."

Unless the council acts, the changes enacted in 2012 will go into effect in 2015. That would expand the size of the minority-majority District 1 and give it a second seat while cutting District 2 from four to three.